Week Five, Part 1: NanoTech + Art

Though I absolutely found the subject covered this week challenging, it was interesting to read how nanoparticles help us in everyday life and can contribute to making life simpler or more functional. I thought of

the face cream I use, which is called ARgENTUM, and uses nanoparticles of colloidal silver, hence why the name has the chemical element symbol for silver (Ag) in its name -- something I never would have noticed before. It also drew my attention to the fact that we need to remain aware of the products we’re using and how they are manufactured -- Gimzewski’s reference to the Chocolate SlimShake was slightly sobering.

I found Paul Rothermund's TED talk very interesting, particularly the idea that the technology is open to everyone and students around the world were mailing him examples of their work building structures with DNA. His 'Happy Face' experiment was delightful. I like that he touched upon the imperfections still inherent in this type of experimentation, however. It reminded me of a story going around the web last week, “Girl Grows Nose on Her Spine After Failed Stem Cell Transplant.” After further research, I also learned that stem cell research has progressed out of work with nanoparticles “Experimentation with different types of nanoparticles...has provided the background from which stem cell research has been launched.” - Theresa Phillips, Biotech.com. The effects of what can go wrong are a good reminder that all of this is still a developing science. The story of the growing nose reminded of the new 3D computers and how they are being used with cells to create actual body parts with living tissue. "Basically what it allows you to do is build tissue the way you assemble something with Legos. So you can put the right cells in the right places. You can't just pour them into a mold." - Keith Murphy, CNN article

In my one legitimate connection to nanotechnology and physics, I played a waitress named Fay Neman (a play on Feynman) who works at Planck’s Cafe (a play on Planck’s Constant) in a 2010 movie called "The Big Bang." Filled with subtle references to particle physics, in the film, noir-style detective Ned Cruz (Antonio Banderas) is searching for a lost dame named Lexie Persimmon (a play on “lex parsimoniae” which is the Latin translation for Occam’s Razor) while reclusive billionaire Simon Kestrel is building a particle collider under the ground in New Mexico (the movie was made during the time when the people behind the Swedish Hadron collider were still holding their breath in search of the Higgs-Boson particle). Quote from the director Tony Krantz: ‘if you say that all life is a collection of opposites, two sides to the same coin, the two stories of the film — the search for the girl and the search for the missing particle — are ultimately the same story. It’s a metaphor for life itself, for physics itself."  I give what is probably the most steamy delivery of the inner workings of atoms on film, while in bed with Mr. Banderas (the scene is NSFW but here’s the trailer, which is SFW).

My entire body was tattooed with atoms, planetary paths and the workings of the universe. In preparation for my role, I read the Tao of Physics and watched a ton of movies assigned to me by the director. I’ve got to be honest, even after this study and after delivering a two page monologue in which I describe exactly how atomic physics works, I find the intangibility of it all extremely difficult to retain and grasp, no matter how many times I relearn it. 

In my opinion, the film suffers from one of the problems in the world between the Two Cultures -- just because something is clever or you understand something, doesn’t always make for good art or good storytelling. The physics references were far over the head of the vast majority of people who see the film, so without the sufficient knowledge to understand the subtext and clever references, it instead seems like some shlock campy thriller. I had an acting teacher that was always bringing it back to the idea of the ‘butcher’ -- even if you’re doing Shakespeare, the butcher from your local store should be able to see your work and understand and relate to it. The emotions and basic character needs should be strong enough in storytelling to sustain interest through even 16th century English or for that matter, a clever interlacing of particle physics and quantum mechanics. 

Lecture 1, Gimzewski
Lecture 3, Gimzewski
Lecture 6, Gimzewski
BioTech Website: NanoTech + Stem Cells 
ARgENTUM Apothecary
TED: Paul Rothermund Details DNA Folding
The Next Frontier in 3D Printing
The Big Bang trailer
The Tao of Physics